The assignee of the present invention manufactures and deploys spacecraft for, inter alia, communications and broadcast services from geostationary orbit. Payload equipment of such spacecraft, intended to operate at a wavelength λ within a microwave or millimeter-wave frequency band, typically include RF signal lines and power amplifiers and may include solid state devices to achieve high levels of power. For example, outputs of an input (divider) waveguide may be communicatively coupled with inputs of an output (collector) waveguide by way of a plurality of solid-state power amplifiers, arranged in parallel.
In the absence of the present teachings, a specific phase separation, normally an integer multiple of λ/2, must be maintained between respective couplings, with the divider waveguide and/or the collector waveguide, of adjacent parallel power amplifiers.
An improved solid state traveling wave amplifier multiplexer design that avoids a necessity to comply with the above-mentioned constraint is desirable.